April 2001

Lucky PetersonDouble Dealin'Blue Thumb

Triple threat Lucky Peterson makes another typically blistering statement on Double Dealin'. A killer guitarist from the piercing Stevie Ray Vaughan blues-rock school as well as a Hammond B-3 burner and impassioned singer, Peterson pulls out all the stops on the sizzling title track. He mixes his funk with a sense of streetwise humor on "It Ain't Safe" and Andre Williams' "3 Handed Woman" and pays direct homage to Albert King with his vicious licks on the New Orleans stroll "Smooth Sailing" and on the slow blues "When My Blood Runs Cold." He goes to church with the B-3 on Keb' Mo's gospel-flavored ballad "Don't Try to Explain," then gets all the way down in the alley on Jon Cleary's "Mercenary Baby." He rocks out on the energized shuffle "Remember the Day" and offers some profound bits of wisdom on the autobiographical tale "4 Little Boys." This one is definitely Lucky's strongest to date, cementing his place as one of the cream of today's blues heap.